Free Blood of the Demon by Rosalie Lario Page B

and left it open, clearly doing everything he could not to frighten her further.
    “Brynn, we need to talk.”
    “About what?” She chuckled humorlessly. “About the demons littering my apartment floor? About your claim that you’re one, too? Or that maybe I’ve gone insane?”
    Keegan leaned against the wall. “You’re not crazy.”
    “Right.”
    “Listen, I know how hard this must be for you.”
    “No,” she interrupted, her tone flat, “you don’t.”
    “Okay. No, I don’t. But as crazy as it might seem, this is your reality. You have to deal with it. Your life depends on it.”
    She shook her head in the vain hope that it would clear her thoughts. “What do you want me to say? Before today, I never knew if I believed in Heaven, and now you’re expecting me to believe in Hell? In demons?”
    “No.”
    Keegan strode toward her, dropped to one knee in front of her, and she fought the instinct to scoot back. He wasn’t a demon. He couldn’t be.
    “No, Brynn. Everything you believe about demons is wrong. A perversion of tidbits of information humans have gleaned throughout the years. Demons aren’t evil creatures from Hell.”
    Brynn blinked at him. “They aren’t?”
    “There is no Hell. At least not as far as I know.”
    She furrowed her brows. “Well then, what are they?”
    “Demons are... well they’re a different race. To be specific, they’re a race of beings from a world that exists in another point of space.”
    “Um... what?”
    “Another dimension, Brynn,” he said gently.
    “You actually expect me to believe you’re from another dimension?”
    Keegan’s gaze bored into hers, his bluish-green eyes burning with an intensity that spoke to the depth of his emotions. “It’s called Infernum. I was born there, and it’s where I live. I was sent to Earth to stop Mammon.”
    Brynn laughed. She had to. If she didn’t, she would cry. Or scream. “You were sent to Earth? So, how are you supposed to have gotten here? Through a tornado?”
    “What?”
    “You know, like Dorothy? Wizard of Oz ?”
    Straight-faced, he said, “I’ve never met this wizard.”
    “Never mind,” she muttered.
    Keegan raised a brow and tilted his head to the side. “There’s a portal to the Otherworlds. It’s guarded by the Elden Council, composed of elders from each of the worlds. The Council allows inter-dimensional travel under given circumstances. It’s how Mammon arrived here on Earth. Me and my brothers, too.”
    How could she respond to what he said? It was so insane.
    “Okay, let’s say that I buy this. It goes against every belief I’ve ever had, but I can’t deny what I saw back in my apartment, and those things were definitely not human. But”—she inhaled deeply—“you expect me to believe you are one, too?”
    “Yes,” he responded, his gaze even. “I do.”
    “No. No, you don’t look like they did. You look like a normal person.”
    Keegan chuckled. “There are all types of demons, just as there are all types of humans. Some, like me, appear human. Others less so.”
    “I don’t believe it.”
    “Brynn,” he said, placing his hands on her knees, “I can prove it.”
    Her heart stopped for a fraction of a second before resuming its staccato beat in her chest. “How?”
    Keegan breathed in and closed his eyes. When he reopened them, their usual bluish-green had been replaced by a deep, fiery red, the color swirling in his eyes like a whirlwind of flames.
    “Holy shit,” she cried. She scrambled backward on the bed, away from Keegan, and covered her mouth with her hands.
    He shut his eyes, and when they flickered open, they were back to normal. He rose and walked around the side of the bed toward her. “Brynn.”
    “No.” She brought her hands up in front of her. “No, wait.”
    Keegan froze, expressionless. His tone was gruff when he said, “Don’t fear me.”
    “Oh, God.” She rubbed her hands over her face. How quickly her life had morphed into a Stephen King